China's State Administration of Work Safety on Monday revealed a regulation that aims to crack down on covering up or lying about workplace accidents.

According to the regulation, submitting accident reports after the required deadline is considered an act of covering up the accident, while deliberately giving false information about the accident, such as regarding the time, place, cause, nature, casualties, people at risk and direct economic loss, is considered lying about the accidents.

The regulation requires companies to submit accident reports to related safety authorities within one hour of discovering an accident. For emergency cases, any on-site personnel can report the cases to the authorities, according to the regulation.

The regulation states that companies will be held primarily responsible for accidents and will bear legal liability for covering up or filing fraudulent reports. Companies that violate the regulation will have their operations suspended or will be deprived of business certificates and licenses, according to the regulation.

The regulation also includes detailed measures to protect fraud informants, including privacy clauses that will prevent the identities of informants from being disclosed.